NEW DELHI: Dense fog and hazardous air pollution blanketed northern India and disrupted hundreds of flights on Monday, as harsh winter weather sent temperatures plunging to near-record lows.

New Delhi and surrounding parts of the country are regularly shrouded by haze that hits each winter due to build-up of vehicle fumes, industrial emissions and smoke from agricultural fires.

But thick cloud cover caused by the current cold snap has reduced visibility even further, with authorities blaming the weather for delaying more than 500 flights at the capital’s airport. Six people were killed in the nearby city of Noida when their car veered off the road in the fog and crashed into a canal.

India’s weather bureau said Delhi was on course to record its coldest December day since 1901, with a minimum temperature of 2.6 degrees Celsius (35.6 Fahrenheit) early on Monday.

In the northeastern state of Assam, zoo authorities put heaters in enclosures to protect tigers from the bracing conditions.

“The animals are not used to this and we are taking special measures to keep the animals, particularly the old ones, warm,” Tejas Mariswamy of Assam zoo said.

Opaque, chilly smog blanketed northern India as low temperatures collided with hazardous levels of air pollution.

Across many cities in the region, including New Delhi, the capital, visibility was reduced to 200 meters (218 yards), according to the India Meteorological Department.

With temperatures dropping in New Delhi to 2 degree Celsius (34 Fahrenheit), street vendors, auto rickshaw drivers and people who sleep on the streets of the capital wrapped themselves in hooded sweaters and blankets, and warmed their hands over small bonfires.

The fires worsened New Delhi’s notorious winter air pollution, with the air quality index a measure of ozone, carbon dioxide and particulate matter topping 500 at a monitor at the US Embassy, 10 times what the World Health Organisation considers safe.

Pollution has made the air colder, mixing with moisture under low wind conditions to create low-altitude clouds stretching from eastern Pakistan to India’s eastern state of Bihar, said Rajendra Kumar Jenamani, a scientist with the India Meteorological Depar­tment.

The cold and fog were expected to continue through New Year’s Day, government weather data showed.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2019